Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! We are excited to share with you the happenings of our little family in our annual
Christmas letter New Year's letter. In case you haven't been following this blog all year, here's a wrap up...
The Kiddos:
Kelsey finished her sophomore year in stellar form. Can't begin to tell you how proud of her we are. She worked her brain into a frazzle and walked away from the 2009-2010 school year with straight A's. Even in math. And especially in AP Biology. Over the summer she went on her first out-of-the-area mission trip, to Islamorada, FL, where she worked with kids at VBS. She had a blast. She returned to school this fall for the infamous junior year and decided she needed more activities for her college resume. Those new activities included: varsity volleyball, student leadership team, yearbook copy editor, morning devotional leader, junior prayer group leader, powderpuff football team, FCA leadership, and volunteering as a Sunday school teacher in the children's ministry at church. She was selected to attend the ACSI leadership conference, which was a big deal or there is no way we would have let her miss three days of APUSH and AP English. There were probably more things she did than those, but we are still a little traumatized from the fall activity overload. This spring she takes the SAT and two AP exams. Oh my! We still start the official college visits too. She has her favorite (probably as a result of her dad's brainwashing... "Hark the Sound" was his lullaby of choice for the kids), but we are encouraging her to keep an open mind as she seeks the Lord's will for her life. Oh yeah, she got her driver's license, too.
Zane also finished the 2009-2010 school year with straight A's. Goodness, it's a good thing Jimmy's their dad. They get all their smarts from him. :) During the spring, Zane discovered his track event: hurdles. It took a little convincing, but the coaches finally let him run hurdles in a meet, and he blew up the competition. We were all a little amazed; Zane may have been the most amazed. He spent the summer...um...relaxing. This fall Zane started high school, which has brought about a number of changes, not the least of which was the fact that he had [a lot of] real homework every night. Football season brought a new JV head coach, a starting position for Zane on offense, and a lot of playing time on defense too. The team did great, finishing 8-2, and the coach did an "excellent" job teaching the guys about excellence in all areas of life. Zane, also, is on the student leadership team at school. After football season, Zane took the classroom portion of Driver's Ed, and we are waiting for the call from the driving school about when he will do his road work. This summer Zane had his first job, mowing Gramma's lawn. He's learned a ton about working hard and saving money. Zane's most interested in anything to do the the military, whether it be video games, History Channel documentaries, or books. He especially loves learning about World War II.
Zack is in third grade this year, and he has a super-fun teacher. We knew it would be a great fit when we walked in during open house and the room was decked out in a beach theme. She does a great job of motivating the kids. Zack has done very well this year, and much to his mom's delight, is writing essays. He's always been a storyteller, but now he's branching into writing. He's found a couple of book series that he likes, and he's read us out of house and home. Zack opted out of sports this past year, and we didn't push it as it was all we can do to get his older brother and sister everywhere they had to be. But this spring is his time to shine. He is trying to decide between running in a youth track and field program or playing flag football in a local league. Like most nine year olds, Zack LOVES building with Legos. For Christmas this year he got three large sets, and by Tuesday he had put together all three by himself (well, he had a little help from Zane on the last one, which doesn't work quite the way it was advertised... imagine that). Zack is our little daredevil, learning how to skimboard this summer and sledding like a champ this winter. He loves riding his bike and is definitely our outdoor kid. He was all about being in the pool this summer, until a bee landed on him in the water. That pretty much ended the pool season for him. The ocean, on the other hand, is his favorite. He would be in the water from sunrise to sunset if we would let him... and if sunrise and sunset weren't feeding time for sharks. He can tell you all about sharks and pirates and privateers and knights and aliens and dinosaurs.
The Parentos:
Norma survived teaching mainly middle schoolers last year and moved up to teaching mainly high schoolers this year. Of course a move up in age level also meant a move to half-time from full-time. It was a little bit of a surprise at first, but it has turned out to be a huge blessing. The Lord's provision has been incredible, and we are grateful. Teaching mainly writing classes (Honors Creative Writing, Journalism, and Middle School Creative Writing) and one English class (tenth grade College Prep) has made life busy with four preps and lots of writing to grade, but it's also been a ton of fun. Five of her middle school students were selected for publication as part of a national competition. Three of her students (one middle school and two high school) were winners in
NaNoWriMo. We hosted the church's high school summer Bible study this year, and it was a blasty blast. For the first time, it was co-ed and we fed the kids before the study. It was sort of like hosting a night of Meta once a week.
Jimmy continues to work for Medtronic and loves helping people. He has some great folks on his team who have become good friends. He's also been blessed to build friendships with some of the doctors in his territory. His favorite part, though, is helping the patients and their families understand the devices they receive. Well, that and the selling part. He really likes sales too. We are so blessed in the place where the Lord has called Jimmy to work. Jimmy was able to help coach Zane's football team again this year, which was a lot of fun (understatement) for him. The new head JV coach is the guy who was Zane's first football coach when Zane played city league in third grade. Jimmy and Coach C have a shared football history and can talk for hours about lineups and plays and such (trust me on this one). With an increase in job responsibilities and ministry as a volunteer football coach, Jimmy has taken a leave of absence from being a deacon. We are still serving in student ministry by being support for the junior Sunday school class teaching team. Jimmy is praying about additional opportunities to serve, but at this stage in life and in our family, we need great wisdom to know where to direct our time and resources.
Speaking of time and resources... yes, we still have the condo at the beach. It was a particularly needy real estate investment this year, as several major systems saw the end of their lifespan. :-/ But as always, the Lord provided. Boy are we grateful for the emergency fund Dave Ramsey made us save!
That's a few high spots for 2010. We hope the year has been a huge blessing to you and that you enter 2011 full of love and joy and peace and hope.
May the Lord bless you bigger than you can ask or imagine!
Love,
Jimmy, Norma, Kelsey, Zane, and Zack (and Pepper too!)
